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New Project Car

So I am going to start a new project car. Something where I can fully customize. I already have 3 amps from my previous cars. A 5 channel, a 2 channel and a mono block that does about 1200 watts.

My last system in my Toyota T100 truck. I don't know if you all remember but I had 3 amps. One in the dash for the tweeters, 2 in the back where the old rear speakers were. It was a extended cab truck. Everything was completely hidden except the subwoofer. And a Audio Control active crossover and a Audio Control equalizer under each seat. Also a 7" LCD TV that popped out in the dash and a DVD Player head unit. This was like 8 years ago before everything got all fancy. For a subwoofer I had a Brahma 15". Adire Audio Extremis 6.5" speakers in a customer fiberglass pod. I don't recall what tweeters I was using but I had an active crossover. It was bliss. I have a RTA mic and software to map out frequency response. From there I tweaked the EQ to be as flat as possible. Cars are horrible places to get good sound because of all the reflections off the glass. Sad part is the truck got in an accident and was totaled about 5 years ago. I pulled the sub and left everything else and got reimbursed by the insurance company. I have been driving an older LS400 and haven't really messed with the stereo in the car since it is all integrated with the climate control etc.

Now I have an older Toyota Corolla as a project car. I still have the LS400 as well. My goal is to make it look as stock as possible. I don't want to dump a ton of money into the car either. Stock front speakers are 4" speakers. I found this mounting bracket that can fit 5.25" speakers.http://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/items.php?id=SAK090

For the rear I don't really know what to do yet. They are 6.5" speakers. Might just rip them out, or replace them with some decent coaxial for rear fill or stick 2 8s in a IB setup. I have 4 of them laying around in my garage. Not sure yet need to spend time looking at my options.

For a Sub I got 8 Flux Audio Labs Bang B-10-4. http://www.fluxaudiolabs.com/b104.htm They love tiny boxes. They take about 250 watts each and will go into a .5 cubic foot box. Thinking about 2 or 4 of those. I don't need too much bass so maybe just 2. I also have a Adire Audio Tempest 15" that is sitting in my garage. If I did that I would go sealed box since ported box would be the whole trunk. I used to keep the Adire Audio Tempest in a 2 cubic foot box and I loved the sound of it. Sadly the box is gone now and the current box won't fit in the back of the car.

I can certainly empathize with time away from the audio game; when I was taking my prereqs Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry, I certainly was real busy with my work, too. Now I'm just chill, starting off 2015 with interviews either for engineering or a utility; my BSE arrives January 5th, which is pretty sweet.

I recently stumbled upon the idea of running line drivers if my next car is not forgiving with aftermarket. There's a nice Audiocontrol line driver I am eyeballing at Crutchfield; I might have the money to pick it up in the next couple of days. Boosts up to 8 V, does 9.5 V RMS, 13 V intermittent, I think. I'm looking into either a Lexus or Infinity for my next ride, used, of course, maybe 50k to 60k mi on it. If its a later model, I might not be able to put my Eclipse CD 5030 in there, hence, my idea with a line driver along with whatever is needed for factory integration; I always have Audiocontrol on my mind, anyway ...

Presently I am working on blueprints for a wedge ported enclosure for my my REA XXv2 12 D4. Gotta general design done on WinISD; my constraint is 2.5 cubic feet net. I'm tuning it low, so the tradeoff is peak output, but it will do a hearty 112 dB at 20 Hz, but that's at full power. It's going to be powered by a JLA 1200/1v3. I picked up some nice 1/0 AWG cable from Knukonceptz along with 8 AWG subwoofer wire, saved a ton, no middle man to mark up the price. I'm going to rig up some amp terminal pins from bugs and copper rod I picked up from the Home Depot so I don't have to worry too much on constantly tightening the hex bolts and accidentally stripping them in the amp. I'll probably be picking up the fiber board January 2nd.

I got a 0.92 inch thick sheet of acrylic coming in Tuesday from Interstate Plastics from Sacramento. Got it in a standard 12 by 12 this time to save $. Like my enclosure for the W6v3; I'm putting a big acrylic window in on the side panel to show off the XX's beefy magnet and frame. Also got some LEDs that can be switched on and off that are going inside the enclosure with an access on the angled back wall.

Take care Easy E.

Last edited by KirK; 12-29-2014 at 19:49.
Reason: subconsciously typed of instead of or...

I have been using Knukonceptz for about 10-12 years now. I still have some older RCA cables unopened from them in my spare parts box. I have been reading about sound deadening and making the car quieter. This is a good read.

I have some 0 gauge wiring laying around. Not sure if i will use it. I also have about 100' of 8GA wiring on a spool I haven't used up yet. I ended buying about 200' of it 10 years ago. I have the 300A fuse for the 0 ga. I think 0 ga will be overkill in this setup. I am thinking of running a 4 ga to the trunk and then using a distribution block off that running 8 ga wiring to each of the amps since the run will be short and I won't be pushing more then a 500 watts an amp.

The 2 channel amp I have is 150wx2 4 ohms 225x2 2 ohms.

The 5 channel is 75x4 and 150x1 4 ohms or 150x2 and 300x1 2 ohms.

The Mono is 600 at 4 ohms and 1200 at 2 ohms.

I might run 2 10s off the 5 channel and my front speakers. 75x2 should be plenty for me. And 150 per 10" sub should still rock pretty loud. I kind of feel bad not using 2 of the channels oh well. I don't feel like installing a ton of amps and stuff.

Yeah my school is in West Virginia, so not too far from Knukonceptz HQ in Windham, Ohio. The shipping only took 2 days.

Yeah, I read up on what current could be supported by the 1/0 Ga; like 375 A. Kinda overkill in my case too, but Washington Roebling's Brooklyn Bridge was considered by many an overkill, but it stands the test of time, supports traffic and now protesters, LOL!

I made incredible progress with my time off during the holidays. I have Installed the 5 channel amp. Ran 4 GA wiring to the trunk. I also ran 2 sets of RCAs to the trunk and hooked them up to the existing Pioneer CD Player. One for subwoofer the other is for front speakers. I also ran new speaker wire to the front speakers and ripped out the rear speakers. The Front speakers and 2 10" Flux Audio Labs 10" subwoofers in a .7cubic foot enclosure each is running off the 5 channel now. I still need to buy new front speakers and a new HU and put some sound deadening in the trunk to keep things from rattling. But overall things a progressing very smoothly. Since most of the stuff I already had I am still on budget.

All the amps I have laying around are samples from various manufactures that make amplifiers. I can't resell them or anything so I just keep them in a box in my garage. There was a point I was planning on selling custom amplifiers but it didn't happen. If you want even more info on the amp I can share it off the forum.

I might contact you off the forum sometime about that; wish I had the full 1500 W RMS to power my REA XX, but oh well, I am happy for now.

I might be designing an enclosure for Nas's younger brother in a couple months; reached out to Russ Anthon from RE. He hasn't responded back yet with a design for Nas's brother's RE woofer. Figured since I am used to WinISD by now I can get a design going. His brother is in the process of looking to buy a Land Rover so the big hatch area would be his best bet for good low freq extension and output.

So I couldn't justify buying the fanciest CD player right now. I have some unexpected expenses I had to cover. I ended up getting a Pioneer DEHX8600BH for now. It has aux input and bluetooth which I like so I can listen to Pandora or Sirius from my phone. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It doesn't have the very good EQ or crossovers that I wanted but it works. It also has HD radio. It does have 4V pre-outs which is better then the old CD Player that was just 2v so that is nice. I had an older Pioneer and the wiring harness wasn't exactly the same it was mirrored which annoyed me so I had to use the new wiring harness. I was able to swap out CD Players relatively easily which was nice. I bought the speaker adapters but I am still waiting for those to come. I have some cheap 5 1/4 speakers laying around I will install to replace the stock speakers for now until I can verify I have enough mounting depth etc with the speaker adapters. Overall my budget has shrunk a ton.

You put the foam down as a barrier between the MLV and the floor. I plan on ordering 2 rolls. I will do all the floors in the car. For the trunk I will lay some of that down as well as putting some traditional sound deadener which is a rubber compound with a foil backing to stop ratting in the trunk.

I always come across neat stuff at Lowes and the Home Depot that I can incorporate in my projects, too.

Like in Hardware at Lowes, they usually have sheet metal with mesh patterns that make for good grilles. With my RE project, I made a grille with some 0.25 inch thick poplar and grooves for the mesh to fit into. Problem was, I made the mistake of using the ceramic magnets as a means of attaching the grille onto the enclosure with other magnets set in the front baffle. They just could not support the weight of the grille and the magnets would not attract too well to keep the grille on. Maybe I can find some small neodymium's somewhere online so the magnetic attraction can overcome the weight.

Lately, I've been forming depressions in the front baffles for the woofers to sit in; I just combine the 0.75 inch MDF with the 0.5 inch MDF to form the depression. I can usually pick up Rustoleum Metal Silver spray paint at either Lowes, HD, or Wal*Mart. It makes a nice cool color contrast with the charcoal grey carpet.

Anyway, good luck with your project Easy E. Just remember, one day at a time.

Supposedly the radiant barrier does a better job then the foam for blocking noise so I wanted to try that instead. I think 1 roll of each is a good start to put on the floor of the car to adsorb some sound. The doors would be next depending on how well the floor worked. The car I am driving is basically a tin can with a thin layer of carpet so its not quiet. So I want to get it to be as quiet as the wife's minivan when going down the freeway. I am not asking it to be as quiet as my older Lexus.

BTW the speaker adapters came. I ended up ordering 2 which meant 2 pairs. So I have an extra pair. The mounting depth with just the adapter is like 1.5-1.75"" which is super shallow. With the extra adapter I can get another .25" if needed. I had some cheap 5 2/5 laying around I stuck that seem to fit. They sound way better then the stock 4" speakers.

I also put this around the cutout for the speaker on the 5 1/4 adapters I got. That way the speaker made a good seal.http://www.homedepot.com/p/MD-Buildi...2295/202837932
The adapter fit really nice in the stock hole and seemed to make a good seal as well.
See picture:

This foam also help give me about a 1/8 mounting depth for the speakers.

Here is the CD Player. Turns out there is a LPF for the subwoofer. So it has most of the features I want. There is a mic for the bluttooth that is mounted below the CD player. I used some 2 sided velcro and it seemed to work fine.

Here is the subwoofer. Its 2 Flux Audio B-10-4 in a sealed enclosure. It is 1.2 cubic feet total. The angle on the back of the box lines up perfectly to the seat. I still have 2/3's of the trunk space at least which was a goal to keep the car still functional.

Here is the 5 channel amp. The 5 channel is 75x4 and 150x1 4 ohms or 150x4 and 300x1 2 ohms. The amp is mounted to the underside of the rear deck of the car. I pulled the rear speakers out a while ago since they were blown.
So I am giving each subwoofer 150 watts and the front speakers 75 watts each. To be honest I have the gain turned way down on the subwoofer vs the front speakers. I could get away with 1 I guess I don't need both. It is a small car so 2 gets pretty loud.

BTW the Radiant barrier has a foil back so I put that side down first. It is made from recycled jeans and is a paint to cut. The DB3 was really easy to cut with scissors or a box cutter.
I used the whole DB3 and Radiant barrier rolls just about up. So if I wanted to do the doors I would need to get another roll. The DB3 is pretty heavy it weighs 3/4 pound per square foot. The acoustic barrier is really thick and fluffy so if you have a need where you care about thickness I would go with the Polyethylene Foam. http://www.homedepot.com/p/TrafficMA...9555/203956730

I did add a little Polyethylene Foam between plastic panels that I suspected were rattling to reduce that chance.

I also put a little foam behind the license plate so it wasn't touching the body. That way it wouldn't rattle when the subwoofer was really loud. I forgot to get a picture.